Rt. Hon. Patrick Ene Okon, a one time member of the Green Chambers of the National Assembly, who represented Akpabuyo, Bakassi and Calabar South has cleared the air on how zoning began in Cross River State since 1999.
Ene who stated this in Calabar earlier through a statement captioned those living in Glass Houses, Do Not Throw Stones, narrated how Donald Duke was the first Cross Riverian to benefit from Zoning after the then Senate President Joseph Wayas made a derogatory statement against the South and went ahead to upturn the results against Professor Eyo Etim Nyong of APP.
Ene’s statement reads in full below: “In 1999, the three political parties in Cross River State voted for their gubernatorial candidates from the Southern Senatorial District:
– Alliance for Democracy (AD): Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey
– All People’s Party (APP): Professor Eyo Etim Nyong
– People’s Democratic Party (PDP): Donald Etim Duke.
“That was zoning – internally crafted and effected by the parties by crosssriverians!!!
“Remember that it was after all that, that our dear late Senator Joseph Wayas convinced Chief Tom Ikimi, the then National Chairman of APP, that a candidate from the Southern Senatorial District could never win the Governorship of Cross River State because “they do not have the voting strength”. That’s how, without respecting our strength / votes, Hon Mark Ukpo was clandestinely / accidentally brought in to fly the flag of APP.
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“Remember also that a few days to the election, the Southern District took a decision to support one of their own. I recall that in the night preceding the election, we in Akpabuyo invited Donald Duke to meet us in Etubom Nyong Effiom Okon’s house; and it was there we told him we were going to support him based on zoning. He gave us N50,000 which we shared N5,000 to each ward. So, we supported him not because of money but our love for our son favourably disposed to zoning arrangements!
“For instance, in Akpabuyo, where the Senator-elect, member-elect, House of Representatives, member-elect, House of Assembly, Chairman-elect and all the 10 Councillors-elect were APP products, we turned the table against that APP party. As a result, Mark Ukpo of APP had only 159 votes in the entire LGA. We didn’t even want him to score up to 100 votes! Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey of AD was second with 3000+ votes. And Donald Duke of PDP garnered 54,0000+ votes. That was the first time in the history of Akpabuyo that the people voted that massively; and the votes were NOT for PDP but for a son of the Southern Senatorial District stock based on zoning!!!
“What did we do to change the tide in Donald’s favour? We had decided in our LGA that no polling booth should vote for APP’s Governorship Candidate and that was it. I am very familiar with the results because I was the agent of APP at the Collation Centre!
“I believe this was replicated in almost all the LGAs in the South. We did it because we believed it was the turn of the South then to produce a Governor. We did it because we believed in the silent and unwritten zoning arrangement. And my brother, Donald, was its first beneficiary of zoning arrangements!!!
“So, I would like to advise that we need not make certain statements at times like this because SOMETIMES, SILENCE IS GOLDEN.”
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